ENEMIES OF APHIDES. 255 



Proposals have been made from time to time for the removal 

 of the most typical families of this order, as originally constituted, 

 to the Orthoptera ; and since the time of Erichson they have been 

 so described by many naturalists, probably without taking due 

 account of their anatomy and development, under the designation 

 of " Pseudo-neuroptera." I shall hope, in a later part of this 

 section, to examine the anatomy, and possibly the embryology, of 

 one or two genera, with a view to the question of classification. 

 Independently of this proposed change, sections of the Neuroptera 

 have been bandied about by different writers to and from the 

 Orthoptera and the Diptera, while Professor Westwood declined 

 even to admit bird-lice and spring-tails among the Ifisecta. At 

 present the Neuroptera, as arranged by Kirby and other leading 

 Entomologists, includes fifteen families or sub-families. Some 

 writers recognise only a lesser number, and Miss Omerod, who 

 classes it in eleven families, truly says in her " Injurious Insects " 

 that there is among them scarcely a leading characteristic which 

 does not meet with an exception. 



The Order is of Linnean origin, and Fabricius, the pupil of 

 the great Swede, in attempting to produce a classification which 

 should rival that of his master, constituted in the section Odoiiata, 

 containing the dragon flies, a division which has been generally 

 accepted by those who retain these species among the Neuroptera. 

 The other principal division, the Neuroptera Flanipen7iia, includes 

 the family of Hemerobiince, among which the aphidivorous species 

 of this order are to be found, the majority of the larvae of this 

 section being carnivorous. The various divisions of this interest- 

 ing and beautiful order, including all those families which are 

 commonly placed with it, comprise, throughout the world, about 

 four thousand species, but only a very limited number find a home 

 within the seas of Britain. A notable feature in the order, which 

 has occasioned much difference of opinion as to the true place of 

 many species of the section Odo7iata, is the imperfect nature of 

 their metamorphosis. In both families of Aphis-eating insects which 

 have been examined in these pages, the series of transformations 

 undergone has been that known as " perfect metamorphosis," in 

 which an active larva has been succeeded by an inert pupa, 

 which, in turn, produces a perfect winged form. 



